Tradition

For over twenty years we’ve gone out the weekend after Thanksgiving to cut down our Christmas tree. We always scope out the weather report and try to go on the better of the three days. This year it looked like Friday was the best day. Early in the morning the sun was shining, and it looked very promising. By the time we left, it was cloudy but no rain was expected for another two hours or so according to Weather.com. No such luck. By the time we arrived at Wilbert’s, it was raining, cold, and windy. 

Wilbert’s was a new tree farm for us, and we were encouraged by the huge size of it. There are six stations where you can pay and quite a nice map of the property. Another nice feature is the cart they provide for carrying the tree in from the field.

The bad news was the trees were short (we need at least a 7 foot tree) and many of them were simply ugly. Lots of them were totally brown on the bottom. We trudged through two huge fields before we finally gave up–cold, wet, and discouraged.

There was no way I wanted to go home without a tree. We weren’t too far from an old standby, Schoff’s Tree Farm. Two years ago, the selection there was slim, and after 15 years or so, Tracy decided we needed to find a new place. But we decided to try again, and we really lucked out. First of all, the weather cleared.

Secondly, Schoff’s had just opened a new field of trees and within minutes, we had found a tree the right size and shape.

While Tracy and Matt were tying the tree on the car . . .

I looked around for some photo ops, and found a couple right in front of the van.

On the way home, we stopped at Grossman’s Nursery so I could pick up some poinsettias. I loved the door handles here as well.

I’ve spent most of the day getting the house decorated. It took a couple of trips to the store to find some candles and a tray for the coffee table display. Tracy is putting the lights on the tree tonight. By tomorrow the house should be ready for Christmas. Now to wrapping gifts and getting Christmas cards out.